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REFUTATION OF THE CHARGES 



MADE AGAINST 



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OF HAVING AUTHORIZED THE USE OF 



EXPLOSIVE AND POISONED MUSKET AND RIFLE BALLS 
DURING THE LATE CIVIL WAR OF 1861-65. 



BY 



Rev. HORACE EDWIN HAYDEN, 



Member Of the Southern Historical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; 

Corresponding Member of the New England Historical and Genealogical 

Society, the Historical Society of Virginia, &c, &c, &c. 



Richmond, Va.: 

Geo. W. Gary, Printer and Binder. 

1879. 






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EXPLOSIVE AND POISONED MUSKET AND 
RIFLE BALLS. 



The following remarkable statement occurs as a note to the 
account of the battle of Gettysburg, on page 78, volume III, of 
"The Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of 
America, by Benson J. Lossing, LL. D.": 

Many, mostly young men, were maimed in every conceivable 
way, by every kind of weapon and missile, the most fiendish of 
which was an explosive and a poisoned bullet, represented in the 
engraving a little more than half the size of the originals, procured 
from the battlefield there by the writer. yZhese'ivere sent by the Con- 
federates: Whether any were ever used by ike* Nationals, the writer is not 
informed. One was made to explode in the body of the man, and 
the other to leave a deadly poison in him, whether the bullet lodged 
in or passed through him. 

Figure A represents the explosive bullet. The perpendicular 
stem, with a piece of thin copper hollowed, and a head over it of 
bullet metal, fitted a cavity in the bullet proper below it, as seen 
in the engraving. In the bottom of the cavity was fulminating 
powder. When the bullet struck, the momentum would cause the 
copper in the outer disc to flatten, and allow the point of the stem 
to strike and explode the fulminating powder, when the bullet 
would be rent into frngments which would lacerate the victim. 

In figure B the bullet proper was hollowed, into which was 
inserted another, also hollow, containing poison. The latter being 
loose, would slip out and remain in the victim's body or limbs 
with its freight of poison if the bullet proper should pass through. 
Among the Confederate wounded at the College were boys of tender 
age and men who had been forced into the ranks against their will. 

The italics I am responsible for. It is difficult for those who 
live at the South to realize how extensively such insinuating slan- 
ders as the above against the Confederates are credited at the 
North, even by reading people. 

I purpose in this paper to examine the statement of the author 
of this Pictorial History, and to show, by indisputable proof, its 
recklessness and its falsity. In the above quotation, he states that 
he had picked up, on the battlefield of Gettysburg, an explosive and 
a poisoned ball. "These" he adds, "were sent by the Confederates. 
Whether any were ever used by the Nationals, the writer is not informed." 
I do not desire to be severe beyond justice; but it does seem that 



as no one ventured to inform him to the contrary, this author 
accepted the silence of the world and deliberately put into print 
this slander against the Confederates without having made any 
apparent effort to learn, as he could have done with ease, whether 
his statement had any basis of truth. 

It is with entire confidence in the facts presented in this paper 
that I deny this author's statement, above, to be a statement of fact. 
I do more than this — 

I. 1 most emphatically deny that the Confederate States ever authorized 
the ute of explosive or poisoned musket or rifle balls. 

II. I most emphatically assert that the United States did pur- 
chase, authorize, issue and use explosive musket or rifle balls during the 
late civil war, and that they were thus officially authorized and 
used at the battle of Gettysburg. 

It happened in 1864, the day after the negro troops made their 
desperate and drunken charge on the Confederate lines to the left 
of Chaffin's farm and were so signally repulsed, that the writer, who 
was located in the trenches a mile still further to the left, picked 
up, in the field outside the trenches assailed by the negroes, some 
of the cartridges these poor black victims had dropped, containing 
the very "explosive" ball described in the above quotation and 
charged to the Confederates. I have preserved one of these balls 
«ver since. It lies before me as I write. It is similar to figure A, 
and with a zinc and not a copper disc. It never contained any fulmi- 
nating powder. The construction of the ball led me to make inves- 
tigations to ascertain its purpose. At first, I thought it might be 
made to leave in the body of the person struck by it three pieces 
of metal, instead of one, to irritate, and possibly destroy lifr. But 
this theory appeared to me so " fiendish " that I was unwilling to 
accept it, and I became convinced, after more careful examination, 
that the purpose of the ball was to increase the momentum, by 
forcing in the cap and expanding the disc so as to fill up the 
grooves of the rifle. The correctness of this view will be proven 
in this paper. 

In the first place, although the charge made by the author of 
the Pictorial History of the Civil War against the Confederates of 
having used explosive and poisoned balls, has been made before, 
and often repeated since, it has never been supported by one grain 
of proof. How did this author ascertain that the balls he picked 
up on the battlefield of Gettysburg were sent by the Confederates? 
How did he learn that one was an explosive and the other a poisoned 



projectile? Did he test the explosive power of the one and the 
poisonous character of the other? He gives no evidence of having 
done so, and advances no proof of his assertions. 

It is a very remarkable fact that no case was ever reported in 
Northern hospitals, or by Northern surgeons, of Union soldiers 
having been wounded by such barbarous missiles as these from the 
Confederate side. 

I have very carefully examined those valuable quarto volumes 
issued by the United States Medical Department and entitled "The 
Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion," and as yet have 
failed to find any case of wound or death reported as having 
occurred by an explosive or poisoned musket ball, excepting that 
on page 91 of volume II of said work there is a table of four thou- 
sand and two (4,002) cases of gunshot wounds of the scalp, hoo (2) 
of which occurred by explosive musket balls. To which army these 
two belonged does not appear. 

A letter addressed to the Surgeon-General of the United States 
by the writer on this subject, has elicited the reply that the Medi- 
cal Department is without any information as to wounds by such 
missiles. I do not find such projectiles noticed as preserved in the 
museum of the Surgeon-General's Department, where rifle projec- 
tiles taken from wounds are usually deposited. 

In the second place, the manufacture, purchase, issue or use of 
such projectiles for firearms by the Confederate States, is positively 
denied by the Confederate authorities, as the following corre- 
spondence will show: 

Beatjvoir, Miss., 28th Jane, 1S79. 

My Dear Sir — ... In reply to your inquiries as to the use 
of explosive or poisoned bulls by the troops of the Confederate 
States, I state as positively as one may in such a case that the 
charge lias no foundation in truth. Oar Government certainly did 
not manufacture or import such balls, and if any were captured 
from the enemy, they could probably only have been used in the 
captured arms tor which they were suited. I heard occasionally 
that the enemy did use explosive balls, and others prepared so as 
to leave a copper ring in the wound, but it was always spoken of 
as an atrocity beneath knighthood and abhorrent to civilization. 
The slander is only one of many instances in which our enemy 
have committed or attempted crimes o( winch our people anel their 
Government were incapable, and then magnified the guilt by ac- 

cusing us of the offences they had committed 

Relieve me, ever faith fully yours, 

Jefferson Davis. 



6 

General Josiah Gorgas, the Chief of Ordnance of the Confede- 
rate States — now of the University of Alabama — writes, under date 
of July 11th, 1879, that to his "knowledge the Confederate States 
never authorized or used explosive or poisoned rifle balls during 
the late war." In this statement also General I. M. St. John and 
General John Ellicott, both of the Ordnance Bureau, Confederate 
States arm} 7 , entirely concur. 

The Adjutant-General of the United States also writes me, under 
date of August 22d, 1879, as to the Confederate archives now in 
the possession of the National Government, as follows: "In reply 
to yours of the 18th August, I have the honor to inform you that 
the Confederate States records in the possession of this Department 
furnish no evidence that poisoned or explosive musket balls were 
used by the army of the Confederate States." 

Rev. J. William Jones, D. D., Secretary of the Southern Histori-- 
.cal Society, has written me to the same effect as to the archives in 
the possession of the Society. 

In the third place, a brief examination of the United States 
Patent Office Reports for 1862-3, and the Ordnance Reports for 
1863-4, will show that the " explosive and the poisoned balls" which 
the author of the "Pictorial History of the Civil War" so gratuit- 
ously charges upon the Confederates, were patented by the United 
States Patent Oilice at Washington, and were purchased, issued and 
used by the United States Government, and, what is still more re- 
markable, that neither of the aforesaid projectiles tvere in any sense 
explosive or ■poisoned. 

In the Patent Office Report for 1862-3 will be found the follow- 
ing, with the corresponding illustration in the second volume: 

No. 37,145— Elijah D. Williams, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — 
Improvement in Elongated Bullet* — Patent dated December 9, 1862. 

This invention consists in the combination with an elongated ex- 
panding bullet of a leaded pin and a concave expanding disc, the 
disc having its concave side against the base of the bullet, and the 
pin entering the cavity thereof and operating to produce the flat- 
tening- of the disc, by which it is caused to expand against the -walls 
of and enter the groves of the gun. 

Claim — First, the combination with elongated expanding bullets 
of a pin, C, and expanding disc, B, applied substantially as herein 
specified. Second, fitting the pin to the cavity of the bullet in the 
manner substantially as herein specified, whereby the expansion 
of the bullet is caused to commence in the front part of its expand- 
ing portion and to be gradually continued toward the rear as herein 
set forth. 



So much for the explosive ball "sent by the Confederates." 
In the same volume of the Patent Office Reports will be found 
also the following: 

No. 36,197 — Ira W. Shaler, of Brooklyn, New York, and Reuben 
Shaler, of Madison, Connecticut, assigned to Ira W. Shaler afore- 
said — Improvement in Compound Bullet for Small Arms — Patent dated 
August 12. 1862. 

This projectile is composed of two or more parts which fit the 
bore of the barrel and so constructed that the forward end of each 
of the parts in the rear of the front one enters a cavity in the rear 
of the one before it, and is formed in relation to the same in such 
a manner as to separate from it after leaving the barrel of the gun 
and make a slight deviation in its line of flight from that of its 
predecessor. 

Claim — The projectile hereinbefore described, made up of two 
or more parts, each of equal diameter, constructed as set forth so 
as to separate from each other. 

No illustration of this projectile appears in the illustrated vol- 
ume of patents; but an official drawing of it from the Patent 
Office lies before me. The ball is slightly different from figure B 
(supra), in that it is here perfect, and figure B gives but two parts 
of the missile. 

So much for the poisoned ball "sent by the Confederates." 

Any person ought to know perfectly well that it was not neces- 
sary to invent or construct a rifle ball especially adapted to carry 
poison, when the common minnie ball itself, dipped into liquid 
poison and coated, as ball cartridges are usually finished, with wax 
or tallow, would have effected the same purpose. 

To what extent the bullets of Williams and Shaler were used 
during the late war by the United States troops, the following offi- 
cial communication from the "War Department at Washington, 
under date of September 16, 1879, will show : 

Sir — In reply to your letter of the 9th instant to the Secretary 
of War, I have to inform you that during the late war a great 
many of the bullets patented by Elijah D. Williams and about 
200,000 of those patented by Ira \V. Shaler were used by the 
United States. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. C. Lyford, Acting Chief of Ordnance. 

In the fourth place, in repelling and refuting the charge against 
the Confederates of having used explosive musket or rifle projec- 
tiles, I charge the United States Government with not only patent- 



ing, but purchasing and using, especially at the battle of Gettys- 
burg, an explosive musket shell; nor do I trust to my imagination, 
but I present the facts, which are as follows : 

In April, 1862, the Commissioner of Public Buildings at Wash- 
ington brought to the attention of the Assistant Secretary of War — 
then Mr. John Tucker — the explosive musket shell invented by 
Samuel Gardiner, jr. The Assistant Secretary at once referred the 
matter to General James W. Ripley, who was then the Chief of the 
Ordnance Bureau at Washington. What action was taken will 
appear when it is stated that in May, 1862, the Chief of Ordnance 
at the West Point Military Academy made a report to the Govern- 
ment of a trial of the Gardiner musket shell. In May, 1862, Mr. 
Gardiner offered to sell some of his explosive musket shells to the 
Government at a stipulated price. His application was referred to 
General Ripley with the following endorsement: 

Will General Ripley consider whether this explosive shell will 
be a valuable missile in battle? 

A. Lincoln. 

General Ripley replied that "it had no value as a service pro- 
jectile." 

In June, 1862, Brigadier-General Rums King, at Fredericksburg, 
made a requisition for some of the Gardiner musket shells. On 
referring this application to the Chief of Ordnance, General Ripley, 
that old arm}'' officer, whose sense of right must have been shocked 
at this instance of barbarism, a second time recorded his disap- 
proval, replying that "it was not advisable to furnish any such 
missiles to the troops at present in service." 

In September, 1862, the Chief of Ordnance of the Eleventh 
corps, United States army, recommended the shell to the Assistant 
Secretary of War, who ordered 10,000 rounds to be purchased — 
made into cartridges. Of this number, 200 were issued to Mr. 
Gardiner for trial by the Eleventh corps. In October, 1862, the 
Chief of Ordnance of the Eleventh corps, then in reserve near 
Fairfax Courthouse, sent in a requisition, endorsed by the General 
commanding the corps, for 20,000 Gardiner musket shells and car- 
tridges. The Assistant Secretary of War referred the matter to the 
Chief of Ordnance, General Ripley, who for the third time recorded 
his disapproval of such issue. Nevertheless, the Assistant Secre- 
tary of War ordered the issue to be made to the Eleventh corps of 
the remaining 9,800 shells and cartridges, which order was obeyed* 



9 

In November, 1862, Mr. Gardiner offered to sell to the United 
States his explosive musket shell and cartridge at $35 per thousand, 
calibre 58. The Assistant Secretary of War at once ordered 100,- 
000, of which 75,000 were calibre 58 for infantry, and 25,000 calibre 
54 for cavalry service. 

In June, 1863, the Second New Hampshire volunteers made a 
requisition for 35,000 of these shells, and by order of the Assistant 
Secretary of War, they received 24,000. Of this number, 10,060 
were abandoned in Virginia and 13,940 distributed to the regiment. 
The report of this regiment, made subsequently, shows that in the 
third quarter of 1863 — that is, from July 1st to October 1st — about 
4,000 of these shells were used in trials and target firing, and about 
10,000'were used in action. The Second New Hampshire regiment 
was in the battle of Gettysburg, and 49 of its members lie buried 
in the cemetery there. 

The above statement shows that the Assistant Secretary of War, 
against what might be regarded as the protest of the Chief of Ord- 
nance, purchased 110,000 of the Gardiner explosive musket shells, 
and issued to the troops in actual service 35,000, leaving 75,000 on 
hand at the close of the war. 

In 1866 the Russian Government issued a circular calling a con- 
vention of the Nations for the purpose of declaring against the use 
of explosive projectiles in war. To this circular the then Chief of 
Ordnance of the United States, General A. B. Dyer, made the fol- 
lowing reply, which I have but little doubt expresses the sentiment 
which actuated General Ripley in his disapproval of the purchase 
and issue of the Gardiner musket shell: 

Ordnance Office, War Department, 
Washington, August 19, 1868. 

Hon. J. M. Schofield, Secretary of War : 

Sir — I have read the communication from the Russian Min- 
ister in relation to the abolishment of the use of explosive, projec- 
tiles in military warfare, with the attention and care it well de- 
serves. 

I concur heartily in the sentiments therein expressed, and I 
trust that our Government will respond unhesitatingly to the 
proposition in behalf of humanity and civilization. The use in 
warfare of explosive balls, so sensitive as to ignite and burst on 
striking a substance as soft and yielding as animal flesh (of men 
or horses), I consider barbarous and no more to be tolerated by civil- 
ized nations than the universally reprobated practice of using 
poisoned missiles, or of poisoning food or drink to be left in the 



10 

way of an enemy. Such a practice is inexcusable among any 
people above the grade of ignorant savages. Neither do I regard 
the use in war of such explosive balls as of any public advantage, 
but rather the reverse; for it will have the effect of killing out- 
right, rather than wounding, and it is known that the care of 
wounded men much more embarrasses the future operations of 
the enemy than the loss of the same number killed, who require 
no further attention which may delay or impede them. 

There is a class of explosive projectiles now used, the discon- 
tinuance of which is not demanded by humanity, and the use of 
which may be considered legitimate. These are the projectiles 
which can only be exploded by contact with hard, resisting sub- 
stances, and which are generally used for destroying ships, coissons, 
or light fortifications, and not directly against men or animals in 
the opposiug ranks. These latter ought not and probably cannot 
be included in an agreement or treaty to prohibit their use in war- 
fare; but I strongly advocate an agreement or treaty binding all 
civilized nations to discontinue and forever abandon the use in 
war of that class of missiles or projectiles which may be used in 
small arms and be so sensitive as to explode on contact with animal 
flesh. 

The papers in the case, received through the State and War 
Departments, are herewith returned. 

In this connection. I also notice a letter from the Hon. C. M. 
Clay, our Minister to Russia, which has been referred to this office 
and herewith returned, and on which I have to report. If the 
civilized nations persist in refusing to discontinue and abandon the 
use of sensitive explosive balls, then it would be well for this Gov- 
ernment to enter into the agreement suggested by Mr. Clay, where- 
by we may be enabled to secure their use in case of necessity, by an 
agreement with him, or his named authorized agent, for the pay- 
ment of a stipulated royalty on each that may be procured from 
him, or may be used in the Government service. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

A. B. Dyer, 
Brevet Major-General, Chief of Ordnance. 

I have recorded enough to show the recklessness and falsity of 
the charge against the Confederates of using such missiles in small 
arms during the late war, and the public is hereby specifically 
"informed whether the Nationals ever used them.'''' 

In the Patent Office Report for 1863-4 will be found the follow- 
ing account of the Gardiner musket shell: 

No. 40,468 — Samuel Gardiner, jr., of New York, N. Y. — Improve- 
ment in Hollow Projectiles — Patent dated November 3, 1863. 

The shell to form the central chamber is attached to a mandrel, 
and the metal forced into a mould around it. 

Claim — Constructing shells for firearms by forcing the metal into 
a mould around an internal shell supported on a mandrel. 



11 

I have a box of these shells in ray possession. They are open 
for examination by any persons who may desire to see them. 

This summer the distinguished officer who commanded the 143d 
regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers, United States army, at the 
battle of Gettysburg, informed me that during the last day of the' 
battle, he and his men frequently heard, above their heads, amid 
the whistling of the minnie balls from the Confederate side, sharp, 
explosive sounds like the snapping of musket caps. He men- 
tioned the matter to an ordnance officer at the time. The officer 
replied that what he heard was explosive rifle balls, which the Con- 
federates had captured from the Union troops, who had lately re- 
ceived them from the Ordnance Department. 

From the fact that the Gardiner shell is not fitted with a percus- 
sion cap at the point of the projectile, and is not easily exploded 
by hand, and from the additional fact that only about ten thou- 
sand are reported as having been used in action, I am willing to 
believe that the primary purpose of the Government of the United 
States in using them was the exploding of caissons. There is, 
moreover,. no evidence that any of these shells were issued from 
the ( hdnance Bureau after the year 18G3. The Gardiner shells are 
so constructed as to have no different appearance in the cartridge 
from the common minnie ball — only the title on the box, and an 
examination of the ball when separate from the cartridge, giving 
any indication of its explosive character. 

I know not certainly if any other such projectiles were used by 
the United States troops, nor have I any especial desire to prose- 
cute the investigation further than to prove the position taken in 
this paper. 

It would be disingenuous in me if I failed to notice the fact that 
a charge somewhat similar to that which begins this article was 
made by a correspondent in the Scientific American for September 
6th, 1862, volume VII, page 151, as follows: 

Recently it was my privilege to examine, in the hands of a man 
just from Fortress Monroe, an explosive bullet, such as was used 
by the Rebels in the six days' battle. It is conical in shape, about 
• one inch long, made of lead, and consists of two parts — viz: a 
solid head piece and a cylindrical chamber, which are united to- 
gether by a screw. From the point of the bullet projects a little 
rod, which passes down through a small hole in the head piece 
-into the chamber below, where it was connected with a percussion 
cap. The chamber contains about a tablespoonful of powder. 
You can readily perceive that if the bullet should encounter a 



12 

bone or other hard substance when entering a man's body, it will 
explode and thereby produce a fatal wound. 

F. J. C. 
Philadelphia, August 23, 18G2. 

In the Patent Office Report (United States) for 1863-4 will be 
found a shell exactly corresponding to this one : 

No. 39,593— Joseph Nottingham Smith, New York, N. Y. — Im- 
provement in Elongated Projectile for Firearms — Patent dated August 
18, 1863. 

It consists of an elongated cylinder having a charge chamber in 
its rear portion, which contains powder for propulsion. The point 
is a pointed axical bolt, whose rear is furnished with a percussion 
cap, to be exploded by the forward motion of a striker on the con- 
cussion of the projectile. 

Not having seen this ball, I cannot certainly identify it with the 
ball mentioned by F. J. C, but it is evident^ the same. 

The inference is very natural that if these several projectiles, 
patented by the United States Patent Office, as the invention of 
Northern men, during the war, and used by the United States 
armies, were ever used by the Confederates, it was only as captured 
ammunition. It was hardly possible, at any reasonable cost, to 
run them through the blockade to the South. 

In conclusion, it may be well to draw attention to Mr. Lossing's 
intimation in the note quoted at the beginning of this paper, that 
the men of the South were forced into the Confederate ranks 
against their will, while those of the North were volunteers. Does 
Mr. Lossing purposely forget the United States drafts made to fill 
up the depleted regiments in the field, and especially the draft of 
May, 1863, two months before the battle of Gettysburg, and the 
riots that occurred in New York city as the result of that draft? 
Does he purposely forget that the United States established recruit- 
ing offices in Europe to procure men for her armies? 

It may be questioned whether as a historian Mr. Lossing is de- 
serving even the notice of a novice in history; for, while he is 
known to be a voluminous writer of American history, he is also 
known to be a writer of many and great inaccuracies. A writer 
who has allowed himself to be so easily imposed upon as in his 
read}' acceptance as true history of the Morgan Jones Welsh Indian 
fraud (American Historical Record, I, 250); who makes such 
glaring historical mistakes as his statement that General Braddock 
was defeated and killed at the "battle of the Great Meadows" 



(History of the Revolutionary War), and that Captain John Smith, 
the Virginia explorer, had explored the Susquehanna river as far 
north as the Wyoming Valley (Harper's Magazine, November, 
1860), and who draws so largely on his imagination, and is so 
much controlled by his prejudices in his "History of the Civil 
War," cannot be considered an entirely trustworthy historian. 
But because Mr. Lossing's histories have flooded the North, and 
are largely accepted as authentic narrations of events, it is due to 
the Confederates and the cause for which they so long and nobly 
battled, against such fearful odds, that the truth be made known 
and Mr. Lossing's misstatements exposed. 

It is earnestly to be hoped that the facts presented in this paper 
will forever set at rest the malicious slander so often repeated 
against the Confederates, by many who are so willing to believe 
anything against them, of having authorized the use in military 
warfare of such atrocious and barbarous missiles as "explosive and 
poisoned" musket or rifle balls. 

H. E. H. 

Brownsville, Pa., September 1, 1879. 



LIBRARY OF CONrpiret 

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